


A Step In The Right Direction

by ginamc



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-08
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-04-03 11:03:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4098625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ginamc/pseuds/ginamc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trip reflects on his life the last four years…mainly two painful loses and one big gain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Step In The Right Direction

**Author's Note:**

> Tribute to the deceased Jane Taylor. Takes place before the events of "Demons" and "Terra Prime." Here’s the story you wanted, Linda ;)

She’d been gone a little over a year and a half…just a bit longer than Lizzie. Losing Lizzie had been enough to shake the little naïveté he had left in him pretty hard; but losing Taylor and nearly losing his chance with T’Pol had been enough to shatter it to the point of being irreparable.

He couldn’t even remember the days when he’d been a whole man--some time before _Enterprise’s_ launch. The last four years had been hell to live. He had almost been able to feel the pieces of himself slipping away into some lost oblivion with each death, each failure, each disappointment.

Taylor had reminded him so much of Lizzie. She was so energetic, so full of life, living each day to the fullest. She had had the drive and the brains to make a hell of a chief engineer someday. Losing her had been like losing Lizzie all over again. Writing that letter to her parents had been like saying goodbye forever to Lizzie and at first, he hadn’t been ready to do that. But he’d known if he didn’t, he’d be dishonouring her memory. She’d have wanted him to live the way she had.

Trip smiled remembering Taylor’s insistence that he ask T'Pol to one of the weekly movie nights.

*  *  *

 _"I hear this week’s movie is going to be_ The Notebook _.”_

_“Uh-huh,” Trip offered, only half paying attention. Suddenly, he felt a jolt of electricity go through his fingers. “Ye-ow!” he screeched, pulling back so suddenly that he hit his head on the top edge of the conduit. He slid all of the way out, rubbing his head with his uninjured hand and muttering a string of curses under his breath._

_He looked up to see Taylor standing over him, her face beet red. “I’m so sorry, Commander!_

_Trip grinned. “I’m all right._

_“No, you’re not! Hold still and let me get a med kit. ”_

_When she returned, she dug through the kit for some burn ointment. “I know how it is around here: someone always gets hurt. So I asked Phlox for a few things to keep here.” She paused. “This might sting a bit.” She offered her other hand for him to squeeze just before she applied the ointment._

_A small sound of surprise escaped as he gritted his teeth and gripped her hand. “Jesus,” he breathed._

_“Okay, I lied. It hurt a lot, didn’t it?” she asked, smiling shyly._

_“I’ve had things hurt worse.”_

_She laughed, kissing his finger. “Better? ”_

_Trip chuckled. “It definitely helps.” He sighed. “You have a great bedside manner. Ever think of becomin’ a nurse?”_

_Taylor shook her head. “I prefer axle grease to blood any day.”_

_“My kind of woman,” he teased._

_She grinned. “If I wasn’t engaged…”_

_“If you weren’t engaged, you’d be gettin’ engaged. I can’t imagine a man not wantin’ a piece of that bedside manner of yours, darlin’.”_

_Taylor laughed and hit his shoulder playfully. “Anyway, quit changing the subject.”_

_“It was that shock that changed the subject, not me.”_

_“You should ask Sub-Commander T’Pol to movie night! This week’s movie is terribly romantic.”_

_“I’m not goin’ to ask her, Jane.”_

_Taylor frowned. “Why not?”_

_“Because I’ve asked her before and she always says ‘no’.”_

_“If you keep asking, she has to say ‘yes’ sooner or later.”_

_Trip sighed. “I know you mean well, Jane. But there’s nothin’ between us.”_

_Taylor smiled faintly. “Time will tell another story, I promise you.”_


End file.
